Sunday, 28 September 2014

We
were on our way back from a temple in Manpur. We were wondering looking at the palm trees if they were tapping it. That's when we saw two villagers carrying a container full of toddy. We
asked if they could give us some. There was no container or mug to
drink it in. So one of them kindly made us dishes out of palm leaves. The
toddy tasted absolutely great. :)

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

In
Gaya, Bihar I came across a common street food there called poached
egg/egg poach. A quick googling and some social media discussion made
me realize that it is a common english breakfast. The indian version
or the Bihari one, rather, uses oil in place of water. The ladle used
for this purpose is called 'dabbu'. The inside is often left
undercooked and the raw egg oozes out when pierced.

In
Kolkata fried eggs [also known as bullseye/ sunny side up] are often
called poached eggs.

Sunday, 14 September 2014

For
students in a film school especially for those in direction and
cinematography, nothing provides more inspiration than pass outs who
made it big. On friday the institute hosted a special screening of
'Titli' directed by Kanu Behl who is an alumnus. Titli had already
made news by being the entrant in the Un Certain Regard section of
Cannes film festival. Both Kanu Behl and his cinematographer
Siddhardh Diwan were present during the screening and after it for a
Q and A session.

Titli
is about oppression in families. The story telling is so powerful, it
hits you bang in the head from the screen. In most families
oppression continues as a cycle. It passes from one generation to
another till the cycle is broken by someone. Everyone in Tili's
family is a ruffian, an abuser. They make a living out of stealing
cars. Titli is trying to break out of this cycle by buying a parking
lot but it seems like it is the hardest thing to do. The film apart
from a brilliant script has extra ordinary acting, some of them by
non actors.

Titli
is also awe inspiring because of the way it was made. It gives young
filmmakers hope. 'Titli' was produced under the banner of Yash Raj Films
one of the biggest production houses in the country. Kanu Behl had assisted Dibaker Banerjee in two of his projects 'Love Sex aur Dhoka' and 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!' before
starting work on Titli's script. When YRF approached DBP in their
usual way of making a director sign a contract of three films one of
it went to Kanu which became Titli. By the time the movie was in
the last stages of post production it was already selected for Cannes which was a remarkable thing to have happened to a debutant director.

Kanu
said that 'in a way which sounds emotionally charged' he made Titli
like it was his final project. He explained in detail the trajectory
of the script. During two of the three major drafts one of the
characters appeared carboard like which he tried to rectify, he said.
The seed of the story was obtained from a newspaper report on a hit
and run case. The person arrested was from a family of three
brothers. That was pretty much all that stayed out of the real
incident, Kanu added.

The
reahearsal workshops were intense and were intended to make the
actors get the emotion behind the characters. He was trying to make
them relate with the charecters with the actors' personal
experiences.

Siddharth
Diwan, the cinematographer when asked about the choice of shooting on
16mm explained how it was a joint decision. Kanu wanted everything to
look as if it was from ten years ago and based on the tests that were
done before the shoot they decided that 16mm was what was best suited
for this. He also explained how he tried to achieve the filmmaker's
concept that Titli's house was the only one in the area which was
left like how it was, tiny among a lot of tall structures hovering
high above it. He said he tried to make it look as if almost no
direct sunlight entered the house and all that one saw was lit by
light which was seeping in through a lot of structures which stood
tall around the small house. All the locations were real, he said.
Titli's house, however was modified a bit. Initially one could see
the road outside from the rooms inside. This was changed into an L
shape from which no view of the outside world was possible, thereby
giving the feeling of being trapped.

Kanu
said that the most of the discussion with Siddarth during the prep
days was about shared interests in arts, literature, music etc. While
talking about the edit, (the editor is again a pass out from the
institute, Namrata Rao. Sound was done by another alumnus, Pritam
Das) Kanu said that the basic idea was that of making people aware
that they were watching someone being watched. That was the primary thought on which she worked and may be due to this reason
you see a lot of dialogues happening when you are watching the person
listening to it rather than the person saying those dialogues. Pritam, the sound designer has done a remarkable job in both the location recording and the design itself. Kanu strongly opposed the customary noise cleaning
procedure all the tracks in the industry underwent to avoid the
polished sound.

The
cut we watched was one which is going to Cannes. When asked what was
different in the cut for theatres Kanu quipped 'Pay for the ticket,
go the theatres and watch'.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Publishing the script. This was the 12th draft. Minor changes were made in the final two weeks before shoot and even during it. The first draft had 33 scenes. This one has 20. It was P Mahmood, my professor who mentored the script mostly. She took me through at least 4 drafts. I spoke to two more professors about it. The lack of a story was a big problem for some. The dialogues in hindi were just for reference and were actually in bangla. The major problems which happened during shoot were that two of my actors let me down even after rigorous rehearsal sessions which were held before shoot and that i had to hurry up a couple of shots due to lack of footage and time. Currently indifferent about it all. Let's see what happens during edit.

What
i liked best about writing the script was simply watching how a lot
of experiences i had made a note of thinking it would be of use
sometime actually form parts of it. I finally realized why it is
important to keep a journal. For example, Anupama finding a photograph
in the room was based on an experience i had when i moved in to my room
here. I had found an envelope in which there were some photos taken in
Kerala. The post boxes wall was an experience i had already had and
which i even had written about here. The old woman's character was based
on a woman i had actually seen at a post office. I had written a script
for one of our exercises in the previous semester based on it and
decided to take a portion of it and paste it here. So on and so forth.
In short even though it might be a little tiresome to actually jot down everything
which interests you it has to be done, painstakingly. You will always have to have a notebook/sketchpad or even a phone with some similar option ready at hand. They are sure to
feature in your thought process therafter.

Scene
1

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR
ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF A NORTH KOLKATA BUILDING

Anupama
(28) is carrying a lot many things such as bags, scrolls of paper,
canvas, art material, shoes etc and hazardously climbing the stairs
lined by post boxes. She goes past a door, reaches another one, takes
a key and opens the door, enters the house and shuts it with her leg.
There is a carton outside the house. Papers strewn beside it. A worn
out shoe.

TITLE

MOVING
IN

ഗൃഹപ്രവേശം

Scene
2

INT/DAY/
DRAWING ROOM-CORRIDOR

She
now comes out with some more old things, has an old carpet which she
is holding at a distance from her body, and some more papers with her
now. She dumps all of them above the carton outside. Her eyes fix on
something on the floor. She picks it up.

Scene
2A

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

She
pulls out the photograph inside the envelope, looks at it and goes
in.

SCENE
3

INT/DAY/KITCHEN

She
is breaking open a packet of Maggi noodles with her teeth. We can see
a patch of light in the kitchen.

She
eats Maggi with some pickle with malayalam name. While she starts
gobbling the food down which is rather hot, she sees something on the
loft. She climbs up the platform and pulls it out. It falls and it is
a christmas tree. Plastic. Old and dusty.

Scene
4

INT/DAY/HALL-DRAWING
ROOM

The
christmas tree is dragged and erected in the drawing room. Just as
she heaves a sigh of exasperation there is a knock on the door. She
walks on her knees to the door to get it. A woman of about 50 comes
in before she even says anything. As Anupama watches in bewilderment
she says

The
drawing room is now set with a computer table. Her modest collection
of books is on the floor though neatly stacked on sheets of
newspaper. On the table is a laptop, speakers, some CDs. DVDs, and
the envelope that she found earlier. An old photo juts out from it.
We see the face of a young girl. On the floor is a mattress with a
pillow. You can see scrolls of paper, canvas boards and some half
unpacked bags around. She reads some news and checks her facebook. In
the news are a lot of upsetting current affairs. Her facebook shows
some baby photos, wedding photos etc of friends and she is turned
off. Shuts her eyes and rubs them. The phone rings and she looks at
the caller and doesn't answer. There is a patch of light on the wall
now. She takes a board and places it on her lap. There is a mug with
water in it, paint, brushes in a cup/a holder and paper. She takes
the palette and is about to mix some paint when she hears voices from
outside. A lot of girls. She sighs and leans back on to the wall.

Her
phone rings

reluctantly
she picks it up. She is silent for some time. Then

Anupama:
ആദി
നിന്നെ ആശ്വസിപ്പിക്കാന്‍
അവിടെ വേണമെന്നൊക്കെ എനിക്കും
ആഗ്രഹണ്ട്.
പക്ഷെ
എനിക്ക് പറ്റില്ല.
ഇത്
കോളെജില് അവളുമായിട്ട് അടി
കൂടി എന്നെ വിളിച്ച് കരയണ
പോലെയല്ല.
ചേച്ചി
പോയി. ഇനി
ഇല്ല. I
will try to finish her assignments. But that is not going to bring
her back. Yeah right, we have the same genes, so we will paint the
same?! For god's sake, Aadi, she is dead. Yeah now I think I
know why it's called a dead-line. Okay FINE! Tell me when it
is.

She
rummages through one of the bags, digs out a calender from its depth,
flips the pages to reach June and circles 26th. Drops the
brush onto the calender.

She
turns against the wall, presses her face on it and observes the
light.

The
clanking of wood starts and the dance practice starts. She gives up
painting and gets up.

SCENE
6

IN/DAY/CORRIDOR

Pallabi
collides against Anupama who is standing in front of the letter boxes
and checking mail.

Pallabi:
[Bangla] late again

Anupama
smiles. The girl rushes to the door.

SCENE
7

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

In
the corridor a bag carrying newspaper and milk is being drawn up by
the dance teacher. The cat sits smugly on the parapet. To her left we
see an old woman laboriously watering the plants in her balcony,
bougenvillas. We can hear Anupama talking in malayalam to someone in
the background.

It's
raining heavily. Thunder, lightning. The dance girls come out and
promptly take out umbrellas from their bags. Anupama comes up soaked.
She sees the girl who was late earlier and says with an exasperated
smile

Anupama:
poocho mat.

SCENE
9

INT/NIGHT/DRAWING
ROOM

Now
there are patterns on the wall from the light in the corridor coming
in through the ventilator.

The
calender is up on the wall with 26th July circled. The
usual source of light in the room is not used for some reason and the
christmas tree is lit.

She
is masturbating, is unable to, pulls her right arm from beneath her
pants and just lies there.

The
dance girls approach Anupama. They all have umbrellas. She opens her
eyes and the girl who was late takes an umbrella out, smiles and
asks:

Pallabi:
Forgot your umbrella?

SCENE
10

INT/DAY/DRAWING
ROOM

Anupama
wakes up with a start and the knock on the door which was faint in
the dream is now quite audible. She gets up and sees the patch of
light on the wall and is dismayed that she overslept. She opens the
door and finds a young man of about 27 at the door. She squints at
him.

Senthil:
Hello, I am Senthil. Err... I used to live here earlier.

He
is thinking of what next to say when she quickly understands and says

Anupama:
Oh!

She
makes way for him to come inside.

Senthil:
I...wanted to click some photos. We never did when we were living
here.

They
are sharing maggi. Senthil is on the floor, next to the christmas
tree. Anupama is on the platform in her usual place. Senthil's camera
is beside her. Senthil is probing the pickle bottle with his index
finger. It is almost over. He looks at the christmas tree.

Anupama
frantically drags all her canvases out of the room, dumps it on the
corridor and kicks and stamps on them.

Scene
16A

INT/NIGHT/CORRIDOR

The
dance teacher peeps out of her house and watches anupama kick and
stamp in the corridor. She retreats after some time.

Scene
17

INT/NIGHT/Corridor-stairs.

Anupama
storms out into the corridor. On the stairs she stumbles and falls.
She makes a whining sound [അമ്മേ]
and gets up. She takes two steps upstairs, then breaks down and
startes crying, weeping. The old woman comes in and sits by her side.
In an instant she hugs the old woman and weeps more. The woman puts a
reassuring arm around her shoulder.

Sc
21A

The
cat in a basket, trying to get out

Sc
21B

Debdatta:
We don't have a place to do it, you know.

Sc
21C

Anupama
is standing near the post boxes with a huge brush in her hand

Sc
21D

Dance
teacher: where is your furniture?

Sc
21E The old woman next door breaks a pot in the parapet. A
bougenvilla.

Scene
18

INT/DAY/DRAWING
ROOM

Anupama
opens an umbrella and checks for leaks.

She
turns the page of the calender to July from June. Leaves the room
with a determined look and hastily.

Scene
19

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

She
leaves the room, Locks the door. The dance girls are coming out. They
are all crowding around the post boxes and murmering to each other.
She waits for some time and calls the girl who was late. She comes
with an embarrassed smile.

Anupama
gives her the key to her room.

Anupama:
Mein kaafi der tak waapas nahin aaoongi.

The
girl is astonished at first. Then she says:

The
Girl: Thankyou!

Anupama
leaves without acknowledging it.

Scene
19A

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

Pallabi
hurries up the stairs. Anupama leaves. We see that all the post boxes
have been painted black and a huge drawing has been made on it in
white paint.

Scene
20

INT/DAY/DRAWING
ROOM

The
girl and the boy make out in the room. The christmas tree is in the
room. On the wall is an enlarged photo. Two young girls, seemingly
sisters. The patch of light is occasionally on their arms which are
ever entwining and relaxing.

The
cat lay sleepily on Anupama's chair.

The
naked lovers are on the bed, but it is night now and amidst the
shadows cast by the light outside.

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

After
we made the floor plan it was time to proceed to actual set
construction. Even before that in consultation with the producers our
budget was prepared. D Jeet and I proceeded towards finalizing the
look of the film. This included props, costumes etc. There were a lot
of problems that we faced during construction. The first one was that
of opening the pit. We had to use the pit in the floor for the stairs
portion of the set. Owing to the use of the rain machine in the shoot
before ours it was filled with mucky water. We had to pump all of it
out. Work=time=money on set. Students including D Jeet, me and some
others from the dept of cinematography also helped in the
construction. The first day after the previous shoot would be to
dismantle the lights. The second to dismantle their set. The third
for our construction, fourth for painting and fifth for weathering.
Sixth day is for lighting. On seventh day contrary to popular fairy
tales tradition, we don't rest but just lose sleep over the shoot
which would start the coming day. I remember the two of us sitting on
the stairs and taking a look at the space that was made. It felt as
if we had made a house and were taking a final look at it.

Even
during those days of prep. I was proceeding with casting and
rehearsals. I even got chance to rehearse on set on the day of
lighting. Getting the actors acquainted with the set is also a good
practice.

When
you know that a film was shot on studio what is to be understood is
that every single thing you saw on screen was made or put there on
purpose. Nothing was a coincidence. From the set design we made and
the references we had taken the set we made looked like this. These
are stills taken during shoot so nothing might make sense owing to
the fact that my script doesn't make much sense. :D

The
shoot went as usual. With a LOT of running around, sleeplessness,
restlessness, hardwork, toil, rehearsals, good acting, bad acting,
exigencies, recoveries, heartbreaks, bonding, fighting, drama etc. To
quote Bresson “Shooting. No part of the unexpected which is not
secretly expected by you”. Even with all these usual events it was
different from any shoot I was part of till date. There were a lot of
reasons for this. I had not worked this hard for any other work. It
was the first major project after the training we received under
specialization. This meant that this was the first time I was going
to put to use some lessons and notes I had made for myself and wanted
to try out. It was the first time the ability of the four of us to
work as a crew was going to be put to test. Everything put together
it gave me a high that even the best joint I have had so far wasn't
able to give me. I loved working with D Jeet especially. I could
feel my ideas feel at home in his images.

The
wait for the telecine is on. In two weeks' time I will see the rough
cut. Just thinking of it makes me aware of the numerous blunders I
made and the disaster that the actual film is going to be. Even then,
when I think of the beautiful process that I was part of I feel
content. That will do, for now.

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